May 31, 2012

As cities like this one try to reinvent themselves after losing large swaths of their manufacturing sectors, they are discovering that one of the most critical ingredients for a successful transformation — college graduates — is in perilously short supply. Dayton sits on one side of a growing divide among American cities, in which a small number of metro areas vacuum up a large number of college graduates, and the rest struggle to keep those they have. The divide shows signs of widening as college graduates gravitate to places with many other college graduates and the atmosphere that creates. Read more at:http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/31/us/as-college-graduates-cluster-some-cities-are-left-behind.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Nearly 30 percent of college students who took out loans dropped out of school, up from fewer than a quarter of students a decade ago, according to a recent analysis of government data by think tank Education Sector. College dropouts are also among the most likely to default on their loans, falling behind at a rate four times that of graduates. That is raising new questions about the wisdom of decades of public policy that focused on increasing access to higher learning but paid less attention to what happens once students arrive on campus. Read more at:http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/college-dropouts-have-debt-but-no-degree/2012/05/28/gJQAnUPqwU_story.html?hpid=z4

Notoriously insular, corporate Japan has long been wary of embracing Western-educated compatriots who return home. But critics say the reluctance to tap the international experience of these young people is a growing problem for Japan as some of its major industries — like banking, consumer electronics and automobiles — lose ground in an increasingly global economy. What is more, Japanese students who study overseas often find that by the time they enter the job hunt back home, they are far behind compatriots who have already contacted as many as 100 companies and received help from extensive alumni networks. And those who spend too long overseas find they are shut out by rigid age preferences for graduates no older than their mid-20s. Read more at:http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/business/global/as-global-rivals-gain-ground-corporate-japan-clings-to-cautious-ways.html?_r=1&ref=education

The University of Michigan Athletic Department is in the beginning stages of developing a student loyalty program. Loyalty programs are designed to boost attendance at athletic events by offering students incentives —usually in the form of priority seating at football and basketball games— to go to games early or attend low-traffic events. Some models encourage students to show up to games early so the student section isn't sparse. Read more at:http://www.annarbor.com/news/university-of-michigan-athletics-is/

The college-for-all crusade has outlived its usefulness. Time to ditch it. Like the crusade to make all Americans homeowners, it's now doing more harm than good. It looms as the largest mistake in educational policy since World War II, even though higher education's expansion also ranks as one of America's great postwar triumphs. College became the ticket to the middle class, the be-all-and-end-all of K-12 education. If you didn't go to college, you'd failed. Improving "access" -- having more students go to college -- drove public policy. We overdid it. The obsessive faith in college has backfired. For starters, we've dumbed down college. Read more at:http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/views/os-ed-robert-samuelson-052812-20120529,0,5331207.column

May 30, 2012

Johnnica Hababag planned to take two classes this summer so she could transfer from Los Angeles Valley College to a four-year school. But those plans were upended when she learned that the community college had all but canceled its summer session because of budget cuts. She is one of thousands of students up and down the state shut out of classes this summer as funding cuts force many of California's public colleges to cancel or severely reduce offerings. Summer school has traditionally provided an outlet for students to help speed progress toward a degree or to transfer — or just to stay on track. But budget reductions this year have forced many public colleges to shift priorities. Read more at:http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-adv-college-summer-20120527,0,5544208.story

Budget cutbacks to state universities appear to be speeding ongoing efforts to increase online education as resources shrink and timely access to prerequisite classes becomes more difficult. Educators are increasingly looking to online courses as a way to handle more students with less funding.The development of hybrid online courses, in collaboration with faculty in recent years, has helped more students move past "bottleneck courses" - classes in which there aren't enough faculty to handle large numbers of students. Read more:http://www.sbsun.com/ci_20714014/public-universities-expand-web-education-offerings#ixzz1wGeQNZGp

Each year, an estimated 1.7 million U.S. college students are steered to remedial classes to catch them up and prepare them for regular coursework. But a growing body of research shows the courses are eating up time and money, often leading not to degrees but student loan hangovers. The expense of remedial courses, which typically cost students the same as regular classes but don't fulfill degree requirements, run about $3 billion annually. Read more at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/05/28/national/a114334D08.DTL#ixzz1wHs4cDGX

May 29, 2012

Vice President Joe Biden, when he addresses a happy throng of graduates from Cypress Bay High School in that fancy new baseball stadium on June 4, will be looking out at the unwitting perpetrators of the next great debt crisis. Biden, nice guy that he is, probably won’t open with, “Hello, you likely deadbeats.” Maybe he should. If grads from Cypress Bay High attend one of Florida’s universities this fall, their freshman year will coincide with a $300 million cut in state funding. Along with a 15 percent pop in tuition and diminished help from Bright Futures scholarships. They’ll be attending schools with fewer courses and larger classes, taught by professors disheartened by stagnant wages and benefit cuts, on campuses suffering from drastic cutbacks in maintenance budgets.At the bottom of the education food chain, the students respond by borrowing more money. Read more at:http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/26/2818547/college-loans-are-next-debt-crisis.html